Autumn

Headlines!

Dad on the front page of newspaper. So excited for him!

Meet my New found love - wholemeal burger:

Teochew duck

Cooking a whole duck felt like an upgrade from cooking a whole chicken. I finally get the hang of both. Never in my wildest dream could I imagine I will be chopping a whole chicken or duck. But, it was actually so much fun to do it. The best part was that the chicken and duck was not overcooked, the meat was still juicy and the flavour was just right. It is also a marvellous feeling to know if I ever craved for teochew duck or hainanese chicken rice, I could just make it myself. Then, I don't have to worry about getting miserable slices of meat too from restaurants.

Fab weather in London

A walk along the river on a sunny day with Big Ben and The London Eye in sight. Can't help but love the photos I took :)

Hainanese chicken rice

I enjoy cooking and I am in the kitchen everyday whipping something up.

Cravings for Hainanese chicken rice has been satisfied!!

Look at my hainanese steam chicken. i am much better at chopping a whole chicken now compared to last time. I have resorted to buying whole chicken nowadays as its a cheaper option than buying a pack of drumsticks or chicken breast. It is a rip off to buy chicken breast here. Bloody overpriced. Anyhow, I am happy gorging on the steamed whole chicken. So smooth and juicy :)

Then the I use the remaining chicken broth to make cabbage soup. Tasty!

Occasionally I make desserts. Last week I made chocolate brownies and this week its cheesecake.

All the above totals to 9 pounds only and it is a meal fit for three people. Savvy!

Walkers Sunbites

Walkers Sunbites multigrain crackers taste so good. Its like eating oat crackers. On the pack it says LIGHTLY salted. Indeed, it was not very salty which was to my liking.

They were giving it away for free on Victoria Street. I would member have tried it at all if it was not free because I am not a fan of chips. I am glad I tried it!

Gourmet Burger Kitchen, GBK

I finally had a taste of GBK at Fulham Broadway. GBK is a franchise and so numerous GBK restaurants can be found around London. I have always wanted to try it but I never gotten around to it.

7.95 pounds for a original sized cheeseburger:

Delicious! It reminded me of burger bakar Abang Burn and Burger Lab in Malaysia. Of course in Malaysia that kind of burger cost only 4 pounds. GBK's burger was much better than Burger King's and Mc Donalds. Unfortunately, it can't compete to Malaysia's burgers. Go Malaysia! ;)

On a other note, I left my first footprint on Westfield shopping mall, the largest shopping mall in Europe.

I did not go with high expectations but once I stepped foot in it, my jaw dropped and I was in awe.

 There were so many things to see and do there. It was like having shops from Knightsbridge, Kensington High Street and Oxford Street into one building and also every single food cuisine can be found in Westfield mall!!

Look what I found- A restaurant called Penang!

They serve food like pisang goreng, char kueh teow and other Penang food.

I'd definitely go to Westfield Mall to shop again since it is indoors, very suitable for the rainy wet weather in London. Plus, I dont even like being under the sun so Westfield is fab. The aircond was also full blast so its not so stuffy like some other malls.

I should make some Instagram videos of Westfield mall next time.

Pret A Manger and Itsu

I love Pret A Manger and at Victoria Street, I found out they have one of the biggest Pret A Manger shop I have seen.

If you have not been to London, you need to know that there is Pret A Manger at almost every corner of London streets especially where the tourist attractions are situated.

The owners of Pret A Manger also recently opened Itsu, which is a Japanese restaurant.

Its concept is similar to Pret A Manger where dine in was more expensive than take-away and the 'products on shelf' concept was the same.

I personally enjoy dining in Pret A Manger and Itsu because everything from the sandwiches to the sushi and to the tables were always well arranged and organised. The floor is never filthy and the  staff make it a point to serve within 1 minute and clean the tables within that time too.

I have tried Itsu's salmon teriyaki and salmon sushi box.

Most of Itsu's fish range are salmon, either sashimi, sushi or  rolls. They also have tuna fish sushi and edamame. Recently, the bento boxes came out which was a variety like teriyaki chicken and others. I love edamame so I liked that they have meals which comes with a side of edamame. Besides cold food, they also serve hot food like duck hot pot and others. I would have tried the duck hot pot when I visited Itsu but unfortunately they do not serve duck on weekends. Itsu also have their own range of drinks. I tried their raspberry water. It tasted like water and cough medicine. Not my taste at all.

Best of all, with this concept, customers get to see the end products of the food before making their choice. Its better than looking at a list of menu with no pictures and trying to guess how the food will turn out.

On another note, while strolling around london I stumbled upon the house of the guy who made penicillin! 

I know this because it was written on that blue round sign on its wall.

:):)

Crussh smoothie

Gotta love the smoothies from Crussh at Kensington High Street. I had a smoothie with a blend of raspberries, strawberries, banana and apples. I can't get enough of that!

I saw this cute statue in Chinatown.

If you have not been to a Salsa bar, you should.

Basically, everyone dances salsa! It was amazing to watch the more experienced dancers doing their thing. Its also cool to see random strangers partner each other just to salsa dance to one entire song and they gel so well together!!

Chinatown in London

I finally managed to spend some quality time in Chinatown before salsa classes. I had my duck rice for dinner at a restaurant next to Four Seasons. Four Seasons was always the recommended restaurant to go to for roasted duck on Google and other sites. But, I did not really fancy their roasted duck. Maybe the reviews written were outdated. There were plenty of restaurants selling roasted duck in Chinatown so I decided to try my luck with a different restaurant - the one located next to Four Seasons!

I highly recommend this restaurant which I unfortunately forgotten its name. The roasted duck was so good and the price was much more reasonable. My roasted duck cravings were satisfied that day.

After dinner, I popped into See Woo, the Asian supermarket and lol behold, there were durians for sale! It is durian season afterall back home in Malaysia. I already had my share of durians a few weeks back therefore I did not buy any this round.

The reason I was in See Woo was to buy fish balls. I miss eating something so simple as fish balls  so I just had to get some. Besides that, I also wanted to make dried shrimp sambal because I craved for spicy food too. Dried shrimp sambal was one of my favorite recipe thanks to my mum. Its such a simple dish to cook and it goes well with everything from bread to rice to vegetables or meat. Just yesterday I made pork loins salad with the sambal. The sambal gives the necessary 'kick' to make food taste fab.

Heres the salad:

Five minutes away from Chinatown was where my salsa classes were held - at a Salsa bar. The teacher taught a really interesting dance set that day. It was worth recording. Video at the end of post.

The weather has been a bit chaotic here. It has been cold and wet the past few days. But, the heat will be back tomorrow again. Truthfully, I am not really sure if I prefer the heat or cold.

I learnt a new word: toodle pip - means goodbye 

Rekorderlig cider

A new cider I tried which was absolutely to die for is Rokorderlig cider. It wasn't very sweet like other ciders and it had this crisp to it which was amazing. It was like drinking a fizzy juice or champagne. The flavour was wild berry and best of all, it is pink! So feminine and gorgeous just having it on the table :)

Tau Yew Bak

Waitrose was having discount on meat. Therefore, I bought a couple packs of minced pork, pork loins and chicken. I knew what I wanted to do with minced pork and chicken, but I was not too sure about what I could do with the pork loins.

On the day I decided to cook the pork loins, I googled and remembered That I always wanted to make tau yew bak. I did not have all the ingredients in my cupboard so the taste and colour was not similar to the authentic one. Nevertheless, by just mixing water, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce, it tasted delicious. Adding diced garlic, boiled eggs and mushrooms was also a good option. I also used linguini as noodles because I did not have any chinese noodles.

Simplicity at its best :)

Along the River Thames, London

I took a walk around the River Thames in the evening and it was a sight to behold. London's summer heat has left and the cold and rain has returned. In a day, it rains lightly for ten minutes, stops for 5 minutes, then continues to rain for awhile again. That was during the day. But when evening came, it was breezy and it was raining cats and dogs. I reached home just in time before the storm and on the way home, I saw rainbows.

An evening walk around the River Thames calls for a beautiful colored skye because the sun was setting. Nothing could be more beautiful than a sun set. Even our face complexion looks better during sunset. I took photos of course :)